The US embargo against Cuba: An update
Dr. C. Magda Luisa Arias Rivera
First Secretary, Embassy of Cuba in Argentina
In the current context, it is necessary to revisit the events surrounding the United States blockade against Cuba, which has never been a pretext or justification for hindering the nation's development. Its legal content, the systematic and rigorous nature of its application, as well as its effects on the Cuban economy and society, are often overlooked. However, the damage caused, and the will and actions undertaken by the Cuban government and people to counteract it, demonstrate an unwavering commitment to maintaining and developing their own socialist project of national development, a project that must be respected.
The economic, commercial, and financial embargo is an act of war in peacetime, unilaterally imposed by the United States against Cuba. It has evolved and intensified over more than 60 years. It began with the cancellation of the Cuban sugar quota in the U.S. market in June 1959 and was formalized on February 7, 1962, with the implementation of Section 620a of the Foreign Aid Act, which had been in effect since September 1961, when President John F. Kennedy completely prohibited the importation of goods of Cuban origin. Subsequently, other prohibitions were added.
In 1992, the Torricelli Act codified the embargo prohibitions for the first time , making them extraterritorial, which means imposing sanctions on third countries where subsidiaries of U.S. companies are located, as well as on ships that trade with Cuba. The Helms-Burton Act intensified, internationalized, and solidified the embargo in 1996. Subsequently, other legislative acts, such as the federal budget laws and the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Expansion Act of 2000, incorporated additional prohibitions, such as the denial of financing for agricultural sales to Cuba and the prohibition of U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba as tourists.
During Donald Trump's administration, an additional 243 measures were adopted against Cuba . These included the elimination of cruise ship travel and flights by U.S. airlines to the entire island, except for Havana; the cancellation of consular services in Cuba and their relocation to third countries; restrictions on banking transactions; the initial limitation and subsequent cessation of bank transfers by private citizens, followed by the closure of Western Union's operations; sanctions against Cuban companies; and the persecution of oil companies, insurance companies, shipping companies, and even crews transporting liquefied gas or oil to the island. The culmination of all this was the inclusion of Cuba on an arbitrary and unilateral list of states that, according to Washington, sponsor international terrorism , which has significant effects on our country's international financial relations.
All the measures, applied with surgical precision, force businesses to use intermediaries to access certain products, pay more for insurance and freight, and face increased commissions charged by banks and financial institutions. This results in a substantial and unnatural increase in the expenses that Cuban companies must bear.
Today, the blockade includes a set of measures of aggression and economic coercion , with the declared intention of isolating, suffocating, and immobilizing Cuba and creating unrest among the Cuban population to weaken their resolve to be sovereign and continue on the socialist path, attempting to erode support for the Revolution. A secret memorandum dated April 6, 1960, from Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Lester D. Mallory, establishes as a strategy for combating the Cuban Revolution the deprivation of the country of material and financial resources to generate discontent and achieve surrender through hunger, suffering, and despair. Since then, the United States has followed the same strategy.
In his closing address at the World Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba in November 1994, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro explained: “[…] the blockade is an economic war against Cuba; it is the relentless, constant persecution of all Cuban economic activity anywhere in the world—the United States actively works, through its diplomatic channels, through its embassies, to pressure any country that wants to trade with Cuba, to pressure any company that wants to trade or invest in Cuba, to pressure and punish any ship that transports goods to Cuba—it is a universal war, with that immense power at its disposal, against our country's economy, to the point of even targeting individuals who try to develop any economic activity related to our country.”
This is not an embargo , as some refer to it, because it is not a court order issued to ensure, through the seizure of goods, the fulfillment of a legitimately contracted obligation. It is, in fact, an act of war , adopted under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, which grants the president the power to restrict trade with countries hostile to the United States and the ability to impose economic sanctions in times of war or any other period of national emergency. It also prohibits trade with the enemy or the enemy's allies during armed conflicts, the application of which is not justified in times of peace, especially in a sustained and prolonged manner. Cuba has never been indebted to that country, has not committed any crime against that nation, nor does it represent a threat to its national security. Nevertheless, it is the only country for which this legislation is currently in effect.
The blockade contravenes fundamental principles of international law : sovereign equality, non-intervention in the internal affairs of states, respect for independence and self-determination, and the right to nationalize property in the public interest; it also constitutes a massive and flagrant violation of the human rights of Cubans. According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948, the blockade also qualifies as an “international crime of genocide.”
During its implementation, the blockade has caused losses amounting to $147.853 billion, and its cost to Cuba in gold has been $1.377 trillion . It affects all sectors of the economy, impedes access to materials, products, and services from the international market, and causes harm to the private sector and third countries due to its extraterritorial nature.
US sanctions affect not only Cuban citizens but also entities from third countries seeking to do business with Cuba. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorizes licenses and imposes sanctions, including civil liability, when it detects violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR). Between 2009 and 2016 alone, during the Obama administration, 52 fines were levied for violations of sanctions regimes against Cuba and other countries, totaling $14,404,358,605.
Among its damages are the lost income from exports and services, losses due to the geographical relocation of trade, the deterioration of production and services in the country, the scarcity of food, fuel, medicines and spare parts, the difficulty in accessing cutting-edge technologies, the decrease in services to the population, monetary and financial impacts, emigration and eventually the death of people who have been denied access to a medicine or health technology available only in the United States.
Between April 2019 and December 2020 alone, the US embargo against Cuba caused losses of approximately $9.157 billion . On November 18, 2020, the US Department of Transportation denied several airlines' requests to deliver humanitarian aid to Cuba . It also prevented the shipment of a donation of masks, rapid diagnostic kits, and ventilators from Alibaba and the Jack Ma Foundation—a donation that had already reached more than fifty countries worldwide—because the US company contracted to handle it declined at the last minute, citing the economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed on the destination country. Similarly, a bank involved in a transaction for raw materials used to produce medicines decided not to make a payment for fear of being sanctioned by the US government.
The resolution “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba” has been debated in the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) on 29 occasions . There, the international community almost unanimously rejects the unilateral policy, but the United States government ignores it.
Within the U.S. government, there are those who believe the embargo should end because it is an anachronistic and ineffective policy that has not achieved, nor will it achieve, its objective, and has ultimately discredited and isolated the United States itself. Nevertheless, successive administrations insist on justifying it, citing reasons such as the uncompensated nationalization of American property, the threat Cuba poses to U.S. security due to its relationship with the former Soviet Union, the example Cuba represents for Latin America and the Caribbean, its support for the peoples of Africa in their struggle for decolonization, its rejection of Perestroika as an alternative to socialism, its support for Venezuela, alleged human rights violations, and a purported lack of democracy, among others.
The US embargo is complemented by an intense campaign of defamation, demonization, and political interference in Cuban internal affairs; with subversive programs to which the government dedicates tens of millions of dollars annually from the federal budget, plus additional sums from covert funds . It is neither legal nor ethical for the government of a superpower to subject a small nation to decades of economic warfare in order to impose a foreign political system and a government tailored to its liking.
In the midst of this unequal and prolonged war, Cuba has achieved undeniable successes , such as eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, offering universal, free, and quality educational, cultural, and health services to the entire population, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women, reducing mortality among children under five, investing nearly a third of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in social programs, developing physical culture and sports, expanding access to culture, raising life expectancy, achieving a high Human Development Index (HDI), creating a national productive and industrial base, developing science and technology, promoting and practicing international cooperation, and building the capacity to produce its own medicines and vaccines.
The Cuban government enjoys the support of the majority of the population . As a socialist state governed by the rule of law and social justice, it submitted a new Constitution to a free, direct, and universal referendum in 2019, is working to update its economic and social model, and is confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. These are all complex and ambitious tasks under any circumstances. They are made much more difficult by the persistent hostility of U.S. imperialism. But the Cuban people are determined to resist and continue working based on principles and values deeply rooted in our national culture.
On June 23, at the United Nations General Assembly, our Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, affirmed: “Cuba’s demand is to be left in peace, to live without the blockade, and for the persecution of our commercial and financial ties with the rest of the world to cease. We demand an end to the manipulation and discrimination, and the removal of obstacles to the ties between Cubans living in the United States and their families in Cuba and with the country of their birth.”
Sources:
Allard, B. (2016). Implications of the US blockade against Cuba and the process of normalizing relations. Center for Latin American Studies "Justo Arosemena" Panama, Panama. Tasks, No. 152, January-April, pp. 63-71. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/5350/535055491005.pdf
Castro, F. (1994). Closing speech at the World Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, November 25, 1994 http://www.fidelcastro.cu/es/citas-sobre/Bloqueo%20Norteamericano%20contra%20Cuba?page=9
CubaMinrex (2017) Treasury Department Imposes New Fines for Violations of the Blockade Against Cuba http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2017/01/16/impone-el-departamento-del-tesoro-nuevas-multas-por-violaciones-del-bloqueo-a-cuba/
Pedraza, LA (2021). The blockade against Cuba and some “everyday” effects. https://www.cubahora.cu/ciencia-y-tecnologia/el-bloqueo-contra-cuba-y-algunas-afectaciones-cotidianas
Pereira, CM (2020) Not even in times of pandemic does the blockade cease: Donation from powerful Chinese company for COVID-19 cannot reach Cuba http://www.cubadebate.cu/opinion/2020/04/01/ni-en-tiempos-de-pandemia-cesa-el-bloqueo-donativo-de-poderosa-empresa-china-para-covid-19-no-puede-llegar-a-cuba/
Rivera, AM, Domínguez, DO, & Escudero, JG (2018). The blockade: an act of genocide against Cuba. A legal perspective. https://eventos.upr.edu.cu/index.php/epmi/SN/paper/view/1636
Rodríguez, B. (2021). Speech at the presentation of the draft resolution: "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba." New York, June 23, 2021 http://www.cubavsbloqueo.cu/es/node/146
Rodríguez, JL (2021). The economic blockade in the context of US aggression against Cuba: untold history and recent evolution. 90 miles: Cuba-United States economic relations, 1898-2020, Dykinson , pp. 279-298.
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